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Wednesday 22 March 2023

The Legacy of Thomas Cardinal Collins: "I will shut you down" Who was it? Where was it?

As the great celebration of embracing gratitude for His Most Serene Eminence, Thomas "No Mass For You" Collins approaches, it behooves us to recycle some posts from the past.

The most disgraceful action of Thomas Cardinal Collins, though he was not alone and that is no excuse, was the shuttering of churches during the Wuhan Virus pandemic.  The pandering to corrupt governments and public health officials was a scandal. The obedience before Cesare was something we found hard to believe. Given what we did not know in the first few months some restrictions may have been justified at the time, but these should have been reasonable and sensible. Certainly, the State has a right to set occupancy limits for buildings, as they do for fire. This should have been set at 50% occupancy and the order of the Cardinal to have more Masses. Yet the Cardinal, and others, sat by whilst the churches were reduced to zero and Costco and Walmart had hundreds. In fact, Collins shut down Toronto churches before the provincial government itself! When the Ontario government later allowed churches to open to 10 persons, it wasn't because Collins asked for it, it was to satisfy the need of Jews to have a quorum for worship. Collins refused to open, even with ten, rather conjuring up some ridiculous communion service. 

This was a clear sign of many of the frauds we were living in. The issue of masks was another. I only argued to put on a mask for the sake of preserving our Latin Mass communities from bishops who demanded it or lose the church. Collins stood there at his sedilia and his ambo and demanded all take the jab out of "common sense" and the "common good" even though people were already becoming injured and died and terminated from their employment. He did not defend these and in fact, did the same for his own employees. We, who opposed these were right about all of it, he was wrong about all of it. Thomas Collins stood by and allowed the State and compromised corporations to persecute the faithful and he did nothing to stop it. 

In an online meeting with all priests which was downloaded and then uploaded and a link made available, Collins with his No Mass for You finger in the air stated, "I will shut you down" to any parish who defied his ban on Holy Communion on the tongue. Pointing to his mouth he referred to a parish doing it. 

This is what Collins did that Christmas.


Twelve days later there would be pushback. It was a small church where on a dark Epiphany morning people gathered in defiance long before dawn. No organ to awaken the neighbours only four feet away next door. No lights but the altar candles and a side door unlocked. I was honoured to have been invited, together with my wife. Well over one hundred defied his edict with no masks and packed in. Those who went to communion received on the tongue. Nobody contracted the China Virus! Generations earlier, these people refused to back down. They defied the communists that threatened to close their churches. They stood their ground, and they kept their faith. On that quiet dark winter morning, light shone. The light of faith and freedom and defiance to a Cardinal who threw in his lot with Ceasar. I was never so humbled and at the same time, so proud. After the Mass, the priest and I embraced. we cried tears of joy and sadness for what we had been building over a few years and what we knew we were losing. He had already been censured privately and publicly over Holy Communion, he didn't care. "I answer to a higher power, I will not do this to the people. We didn't let the communists shut us down, why would we let it happen now by a bishop?" 

One of Collins's now-canceled priests, forcibly retired and sent away. 

5 comments:

Robert Mignella said...

In a 2018 book titled, "Extraordinary Ordinaries," an aptly chosen whimsical title was assigned as a chapter heading to the sequence of Bishops for the Archdiocese of Toronto. However, Cardinals Carter, Ambrozic and Collins were never dubbed any catch-phrase nickname so as to allow history to offer its own proper designation. Accordingly, is "down-shutter" or "shut-downer" suitably sufficient?

Father John Matthew Duffy said...

When I was a boy I remember being inspired by a photo ( c. 1910 ) of Irish missionaries boarding a ship bound for Africa. Their families stood on the jetty crying - as it was a good bet that they would never see many of their sons and brothers ever again.

The missionaries suppressed their fear of disease and death to save souls.

Today ???
The gutless Caesar-appeasing bishops suppress Christ and the Sacraments to save their hides - and to save their coveted government funding...

During another health crisis in Toronto two decades ago, I half-jokingly asked a bishop ; "Who will be the first priest Martyr to die of SARS ???". He did not laugh - and I don't think he even knew what I was talking about.

Thanks to garishly-dressed milquetoast Modernist bishops we are now witnessing a disturbing new attitude, that is, the inversion of Christian virtues.

Capitulation and cooperation with evil by "using the pronouns" (?) is now called "charity". Cowardice is now called "prudence" - and the perversion of children in "Catholic" schools to avoid the wrath of the neo-pagan homofascist state is now called "wisdom".

This new attitude is not "progressive" or "enlightened" as it betrays the message of the full and authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Father John Matthew Duffy said...

When I was a boy I remember being inspired by a photo ( c. 1910 ) of Irish missionaries boarding a ship bound for Africa. Their families stood on the jetty crying - as it was a good bet that they would never see many of their sons and brothers ever again.

The missionaries suppressed their fear of disease and death to save souls.

Today ???
The gutless Caesar-appeasing bishops suppress Christ and the Sacraments to save their hides - and to save their coveted government funding...

During another health crisis in Toronto two decades ago, I half-jokingly asked a bishop ; "Who will be the first priest Martyr to die of SARS ???". He did not laugh - and I don't think he even knew what I was talking about.

Thanks to garishly-dressed milquetoast Modernist bishops we are now witnessing a disturbing new attitude, that is, the inversion of Christian virtues.

Capitulation and cooperation with evil by "using the pronouns" (?) is now called "charity". Cowardice is now called "prudence" - and the perversion of children in "Catholic" schools to avoid the wrath of the neo-pagan homofascist state is now called "wisdom".

This new attitude is not "progressive" or "enlightened" as it betrays the message of the full and authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Michael said...

Vox - is there a way for some of us to support our cancelled priests financially?

Vox Cantoris said...

There is no formal way. Also, Toronto has lots of money. They know they have no choice under Canon and Civil Law but to continue to pay or pension them. This is not in all cases, but most. In some cases, Facilities remain and they are quietly retired. In others, they have left the country and gone back to their homeland.